US-China Rivalry Sharpens

Workers, Soldiers, Sailors Must Turn Bosses’ Profit Wars into Communist Revolution

The proposed One Belt One Road combines the Silk Road Economic Belt with the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road

“A military is built to fight,” declared China’s President Xi in a recent major speech. The focus of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) should be on “how to win.” Days later, the Chinese air force simulated a bomb attack on Guam and Hawaii.

Meanwhile US President Trump foolishly told Japanese officials, “I never knew we had so many countries.”

Xi’s speech marks a dramatic change from the former slogan of a “peaceful rise.” It’s an insult to the original PLA, once led by real communists, which mobilized masses to seize power.

When the PLA was the Chinese Red Army, its strength came from its commitment to “serving the people.” It practiced communism in its “supply system,” where volunteer soldiers received basic necessities instead of wages. In the 1950s, many Red Army veterans led village struggles to advance toward communism.

The Chinese Red Army, led by the Communist Party, turned the imperialists’ World War II into a revolution that smashed feudalism and the old capitalist class. But major errors in the Chinese Communist Party’s line –nationalism and other concessions to capitalism– turned it into Xi’s pack of imperialist exploiters.

Workers, soldiers and youth, in China and everywhere, must now prepare to turn the imperialists’ World War III into a revolution for communism.

One Belt, One Road: Chinese Imperialist Response to Global Capitalist Crisis

Xi vowed to make the Chinese army the world’s best to reinforce the Chinese imperialists’ Belt and Road Initiative, “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR). This is a $3 trillion infrastructure development plan for highways, railways, ports and power plants.

OBOR seeks to secure Persian Gulf oil for China over land routes. In wartime, this would bypass maritime choke points controlled by the US Navy. It will also secure China’s trade by land with Asia, the Middle East and Europe, while slashing transportation time and cost. Broad highways will serve a “dual purpose” as aircraft runways and army transport.

The Chinese imperialists need OBOR to compete successfully against their imperialist rivals. For 20 years, massive investments fueled rapid growth in Chinese capitalism’s productive capacity.

But there’s a global capitalist crisis of overproduction. Chinese industry hasn’t sold enough goods to recoup these investments. The excess industrial capacity has idled thousands of factories, creating massive rural unemployment.

Chinese corporate debt is currently about $18 trillion, or 170% of the total value of goods and services produced (GDP). To avoid widespread corporate bankruptcy, declining profits and a potential financial collapse, the Chinese imperialists need cheaper natural resources and new markets. That’s why OBOR is crucial for them.

Xi, in a nod to “peaceful rise,” said that China’s dream required “a peaceful international environment and a stable international order.” He’s the one who’s dreaming – or lying! Chinese imperialism could only replace US imperialism as the dominant world power amidst the radioactive rubble of World War III.

Inter-imperialist rivalry is the main contradiction in the world today. US, Chinese and other bosses are on a collision course. They are willing to sacrifice hundreds of millions of us to defend their system of wage slavery. Only mass mobilization for communist revolution can destroy this deadly system.

Declining US Imperialism: From Proxy Wars to World War

US imperialism is desperately and unsuccessfully trying to impede OBOR with proxy wars unfolding in the Korean peninsula, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iran, Kurdistan, Syria, Turkey and elsewhere. But the US rulers are increasingly isolated in Africa, Latin America and Europe, as well as Asia. Trump is in Asia seeking military alliances with Japan, Australia and India – though without a coherent strategy.

US imperialism has declined steadily but dramatically since the Vietnam War. Two major oil wars in Iraq have strengthened the Chinese, Russian and Iranian capitalists. Even the Saudi rulers, once a solid US ally, are now deeply divided amidst Chinese and Russian pressures to abandon the US dollar.

During capitalist crises, imperialists and other capitalists become more violent and ruthless. But their crisis is our opportunity. Capitalism has created billions of enemies searching for a better world. That world is communism.

Communism Will End Capitalism’s Endless Horrors

Masses internationally want a world where we produce for each others’ needs. A world without borders or nations, where everyone is welcome everywhere. Where we build new housing, smashing the segregated townships and slums and horrific favelas that imprison workers today.

A world without the wage system that forms the material basis of racism and sexism. A world where workers’ power eliminates the racist police, courts and jails and the bosses who use them to terrorize us.

To win this world we need the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) to mobilize for communist revolution. “I am a proud new member of ICWP,” said a youth in South Africa. She added, “I am here in ICWP because of you and because the bosses offered no solution. I am here to dedicate my life to the party.”

We must concentrate on recruitment at industrial concentrations and in the military. Most soldiers are youth with bleak futures. Many are open to communist ideas despite heavy nationalist propaganda. Comrades in South Africa recently distributed 200 copies of Red Flag to soldiers. making contacts with several. (See letter from Mexico, page 15).

Red Flag readers and comrades must join and build Party collectives to encourage each other to struggle for communist ideas and practice. That will strengthen our resolution and confidence. We must spend more time with those who are around us: visits, social events, study groups and involving friends in communist mass work.

The times demand it. The potential is everywhere. Let’s think big! Build an International Red Army!

 

Today’s Chinese imperialist rulers hide behind the revolutionary communist legacy of these Red Army soldiers.

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